Wii Music sells under 81,000 in Oct.

[UPDATE] Despite a symphony of hype, the last of Shigeru Miyamoto's "Big Four" nontraditional titles hits a sour note at US retailers; Dunaway says game is "evergreen."

When the NPD Group released its October sales figures yesterday, one title was noticeably absent from the top 10--Wii Music. For weeks, cash-flush Nintendo has been heavily hyping the title, the last of the "Big Four" nontraditional properties--along with Wii Sports, Wii Play, and Wii Fit--conceived to appeal to nongamers. It even brought out legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto to show off his latest creation to the US press.

Got a spooky chamber organ in that orchestra?

Unfortunately, it seems not even a media blitz aided by the charms of the creator of Donkey Kong could spark Wii Music fever. According to raw NPD data, Wii Music sold just under 81,000 units in the 11 days after it went on sale on October 20. The number is merely a fraction of the 687,700 units Wii Fit moved domestically in a similar period when it went on sale on April 19.

Though many will blame the discordant live jam session at Nintendo's E3 2008 conference for Wii Music's lackluster debut, there are two more likely reasons. First and foremost, the rhythm genre is saturated, with Rock Band and Guitar Hero duking it out for supremacy as Rock Revolution, Ultimate Band, and others struggle to catch up.

Secondly, Wii Music is the only one of the Big Four that isn't bundled with hardware. Thanks to being packed in with the normally $39.99 Wii Remote, the $49.99 Wii Play continues to sell well, moving 282,000 units last month. The Wii Balance Board's unique appeal helped Wii Fit sell 487,000 units in October at $89.99, while Wii Sports sold 803,000 units--by virtue of being packed in with the $249 Wii console itself.

Naturally, Nintendo executives tried to put a brave face on things. "We're predicting that it’s going to be an evergreen title," Nintendo executive vice president of sales and marketing Cammie Dunaway told MTV. "And if you look at titles like Brain Age, it's about the same as what ‘Brain Age’ did during it’s first few weeks and went on to sell 2.5 million copies. Wii Fit certainly had a larger launch than that. But I think that people are starting to understand Wii Music."

735 Comments

  • metaldeath87

    Posted Jan 16, 2009 8:03 pm PT

    So will this statement be retracted or corrected, as Wii Music sold nearly a million copies in December and can now be firmly put in the "successful" category? Isn't it great how I was right about everything, and all of you loser were wrong? Damn, I'm good.

  • Yaunie13

    Posted Jan 8, 2009 4:16 pm PT

    Wii vs. PS, personally Wii has its benefits and PS has theirs, you can't really say Wii is bad and you can't really say PS is bad. Just because one game sux doesn't mean the whole system has to suck... Believe me Wii has made some fun and interesting games. The game is fun no matter how shallow it is. There's only one challenging part about it which is the drum part. They're smart...buy the balance board for the best part of the game. There's a little more to Wii Music than some people may understand... I hope you see what I mean d(^o^)b

  • craigofadown

    Posted Nov 30, 2008 4:44 am PT

    I own a wii and a PS3 and the bottom line is, wii just can't compete, no big releases lately and graphics worse than a lot of ps2 games (seriously), the current sisuation isn't promising.

  • YoJim8obaJoe

    Posted Nov 26, 2008 12:36 pm PT

    Naturally, Nintendo executives tried to put a brave face on things. "We're predicting that it’s going to be an evergreen title," Nintendo executive vice president of sales and marketing Cammie Dunaway told MTV. "And if you look at titles like Brain Age, it's about the same as what ‘Brain Age’ did during it’s first few weeks and went on to sell 2.5 million copies. Wii Fit certainly had a larger launch than that. But I think that people are starting to understand Wii Music." Yes people are starting to understand Wii music,understand it for the crum it is

  • lionheart234

    Posted Nov 26, 2008 4:04 am PT

    even though this game didnt sell that well..... it still has alot of potential.... thats why nintendo released it on the wii, when i first saw it i thought it was rubbish but then i saw the adverts and and reviews and it changed my view about it..... plus x-mas is coming so theres still time for it to sell

  • lightning_kf

    Posted Nov 24, 2008 8:56 am PT

    Ouch.

    Well what did they expect?

    I think it's truly time for them to actually give their mascots who are suffering for attention for so long their chance to shine instead of banking on a bunch of soccer moms.

  • CreatureRising

    Posted Nov 23, 2008 5:26 pm PT

    If there was a Music Game where they gave you a Guitar (with strings and such) and it showed actual Notes on the screen that would be so Revolutionary Maybe GH couldnt catch. Now now I am a little Cooky but i do play Actual Guitar and if they went over Basic Lessons.. Now i dont know how that be Bad

  • Lisandro_v22

    Posted Nov 23, 2008 9:31 am PT

    wii music is a joke it tottally ruined the little credibility that nintendo still had

  • LK9988

    Posted Nov 23, 2008 7:49 am PT

    Ah, such a awesome article Gamespot! Hopefully this will teach Nintendo a lesson about their games and the core audience they abandoned to maybe come back to them.

  • diggyman

    Posted Nov 23, 2008 4:15 am PT

    Has anyone else heard about the Wii HD rumor? Google it... Anyway, they need to make something happen, and soon. Well, maybe not. Nintendo has a huge ammount of brand new "I don't know jack about video games" fans. They seem to be making a lot of games to keep them happy. They make very simple, 'pass the time' games like wii music and the game noobs (god bless em) can jump in and enjoy. Those new guys are money, money, money. While it seems the veteran Nintendo gamer sits and waits to be recognized a little more often. Oh well...

  • Infernal_Hazard

    Posted Nov 23, 2008 3:32 am PT

    Somehow I feel Nintendo has lost its way, its been probably 6 months or more since I bought a Wii game, even longer for DS. I just find NOTHING appealing with what Nintendo's doing these days. Heck I wish I'd gotten Twilight Princess for GC instead of Wii...I'm sick of having to constantly fling my sword with the wii remote and numchuck...and thats half the game (correct me if I'm wrong). Wii Music...god that's just a horrible headache I never want to play or hear.

  • Somebody89

    Posted Nov 22, 2008 12:15 pm PT

    That usually happens when a game sucks.....

  • crudmanIV

    Posted Nov 21, 2008 7:29 pm PT

    Good lord, this is so refreshing to see a page full of negative wii comments. I think chaosbrigade summed it up with what he said. Wii is something you get your friend to buy, so you can play it at his house until you get bored of the gimmics. They just don't try hard enough to make good games. Lindbergh2007 lol.

  • NoseWeed619

    Posted Nov 20, 2008 2:58 pm PT

    Ha Ha. They deserve it. Wii Music is a failure of a game...

  • garland51

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 5:55 pm PT

    It looks like that people are starting to wake up about the Wii. I'm quite surprised at the 35 million or so gullible Wii owners, thinking that they're going to get hardcore games. Instead, they've been fed on junk, except for 1st party games. Gimmicks such as Wii Music, Wii Fit, etc., not to mention the fact that most of the 3rd party lineup on that system just happens to be ports of PS2 games & remakes (it's like a repeat of the PSP's lineup). Get what I'm saying? While it's true that most of the 3rd party games on PS3 are shared with the 360, at least they're brand new. The point is, the Wii ain't nothing more than a overhyped, hardcore, gimmicky piece of junk. I'm so happy that I chose a used 60 GB PS3 over it. Like I said earlier, Nintendo needs to go back to their roots, & give gamers what they want. REAL games.

  • Darkman2007

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 3:14 pm PT

    i dont see the point in this game

    1)its not reallly a game (MGS is a game)
    2) if i wanted to play an instrument, i would learn to play it, its more challenging, this game is kinda lazy

  • widdowson91

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 5:31 am PT

    Nintendo need to release more first party games for the Wii, like Mario and Zelda. But these games should have the option to play using the classic controller because the Pointer and Nunchuk are brilliant on games like Wii Sports and Mertroid Prime 3 Corruption, but on games like Mario or Zelda.... erm, no thanks.

  • dark_k

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 4:01 am PT

    It really depresses me when I go to a game store and see numerous copies of carnival games or other crap shovelware titles on the shelves in the places where more deserving titles should be and with Nintendo burrowing deeper and deeper into the casual market with titles such as this I can see a rise to even more of these 'games' if that term can be used. Its a shame really as despite the relative unpopularity of the gamecube I always found games that I had an incentive to play. I also agree with Hillsy that the time spent on these 'Wii...' games could be beter spent elsewhere such as like he said a new fzero game or in my personal opinion a new sidescrolling metroid game (wiiware anyone), or atleast if they remain gungho about the 'wii...' games give them a longer development period and really flesh out the games, like Nintendo always used to do with their most hyped titles...

  • TehUndeadHorror

    Posted Nov 19, 2008 2:46 am PT

    Just came out at a bad time =/ Kinda unfortunate really.

  • Humorguy_basic

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 4:44 pm PT

    Trajectorize and cjdaweasel valid question friends. the figures for fallout 3 came from NPD. (I know they miss some places, but obviously every PC game in their chart all used the same NPD retailers and Internet retailers, so an equal field.) This means that for the whole month of October a game out for 3 days, with 71,000 sales in those 3 days can outsell all other games, meaning all those other games must obviously have sold less than 71,000 in that month. goodness know what the No.10 or the No.20 title sold then for the whole month - 20,000? 10,000? 5,000? And when I tell you the No.10 was the new Command and Conquer game....!

    As to Longest Journey No's - they came from FunCom - 5 million sales over 4 years and 11 translations to other languages. Fahrenheit came from an interview about a possible movie and the potential director saying it would be hard to keep the 6 million Fahrenheit owners happy. Gothic 3 had 3 million sales in Europe alone - excluding UK and North America, so I have assumed at least 500,000 additional sales in those markets. That came from German equivalent of NPD. We know Crysis only sold 1.5 million on PC, we know Bioshock sold just under 2 million on PC, we know Far Cry 2 has so far garnered less than 1 million and Dead Space about the same. Given how long they have been on the market I am assuming sales of under 2 million for both those latter titles.

    There is a general misconception that the games market is bigger today than 10-15 years ago. Well, overall, of course, it is. But this is because of the huge growth in console. When you look at PC gaming, sales are down over 60% in 15 years, and some say it's actually around 80% because STEAM etc just don;t sell the units people assume they do. When you consider a niche title like Civilization II, although a classic of course, sold nearly 3 million copies in the USA alone! Today, a Fallout 3 can be No.1 in the U.S. with 71,000 sales. (Makes you wonder how many sales are needed in a quiet month!), in 1996 Computer Gaming World, in an article, said it took 150,000 units sales in it's first week to guarantee a TOP 5 position for a PC game and 250,000+ to guarantee a No.1 in it's first week 'outside of the Christmas season, when those numbers would probably have to be doubled'! This tells you how large the PC games market was compared with now.

    Please remember, the way the games market works, with public corporations somehow able to not give out unit sales figures and no recording companies like NPD getting sales numbers from everywhere or always getting honest answers, sales figures for computer games is never going to be totally accurate or honest. But I have been in the business (1989 - 1997) so got access to lots of numbers and people back then. Combine that with most games publishers now announcing as soon as their game sells one million or two million or how they got to No.1 in the October US sales chart with 71,000 sales, you can get a pretty decent picture of what's going on....!

  • kavadias1981

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 12:41 pm PT

    I dont know if anyone remembers me posting on every previous Wii Muisc report or not but I always said that it would be a flop and that even the non-gamer wouldn't be stupid enough to buy it. For those that disagreed with me, HA I told you so!

  • Kenji_Masamune

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 10:51 am PT

    I still find it funny that people still shout "moar hardcore/mature games please" for Nintendo. Apparently they must have started gaming this generation. Sure sure Nintendo might have the occasional RE/MGS remake games or a (could be cool) shooter... but those games only makeup under 10% of the games released on the system. Last time N had a nice lineup of games was back in it's SNES days. All the other systems have a small handful of decent games,, and the rest is kiddy twink trash

  • bob1387

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 10:23 am PT

    I wonder what's for dinner...

  • dan123collins

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 9:33 am PT

    haha!!! epic fail for the wii,i though it was crap from the advert and its a pixal fest look at those jagged lines.

  • chaosbrigade

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 9:23 am PT

    Wii is fun, but targeting the market to lil kids and housewives isn't the way to go. Despite its sales, Nintendo still isn't making as much money as Microsoft and Sony because lil kids and housewives aren't the people that spend $100 on video gaming every month. Wii Sports, Wii Fit or Wii whatever are just novel ideas that are fun for the first week and left in the cabinet to collect dust after that.

  • thekey

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 8:18 am PT

    No shock there. It would be nice if all the other titles sold that much on the Wii.

  • Hillsy_

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 8:02 am PT

    A good point:

    As a person argued earlier, any business's model is to make the most money without the least amount of work.

    True. It is a shame though. I think of it as a waste of time. I wished they could take the time they used to create/make Wii Sports 2 and Wii Music to make a new Zelda, Mario, Metroid or other popular title like F-Zero instead. Roll on next year for the Wii.

  • King_Jeremy_77

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 7:17 am PT

    Oh well, can't win 'em all.

  • dnathug

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 7:04 am PT

    couldn't of said it better Kabuto, Great Statement!!!

  • SavoyPrime

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 6:25 am PT

    KabutoHunter: "Hopefully this is the beginning of a trend for people to quit blindly following Nintendo into one crappy pseudo-game after another.

    We get it, Nintendo, your new money-maker is the casual market. But you'll find they won't stick with you for long, and when you have to come crawling back to the hardcore you'll find they have moved on to greener pastures. You're committing delayed suicide with each new "Wii Whatever" title you produce instead of a real game."

    I must co-sign that whole statement. Well said and truthful.

  • KabutoHunter

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 6:14 am PT

    Hopefully this is the beginning of a trend for people to quit blindly following Nintendo into one crappy pseudo-game after another.

    We get it, Nintendo, your new money-maker is the casual market. But you'll find they won't stick with you for long, and when you have to come crawling back to the hardcore you'll find they have moved on to greener pastures. You're committing delayed suicide with each new "Wii Whatever" title you produce instead of a real game.

  • cjdaweasel

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 5:47 am PT

    casual != retarded

  • LiK

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 4:41 am PT

    there is a god.

  • kugliim

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 3:17 am PT

    Tebbit's right. I have a 360 for my hardcore gaming and a Wii to play with my wife and kids. It's a great console for something to play when you're not having an all nighter on COD4 (COD5's not worth it... IF all the way baby!)

  • Tebbit

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 2:52 am PT

    Sure, there are only a few good games for the Wii, and apparently Wii music isn't one of them, but I still reckon the Wii is a worthwhile purchase, if only for games like Mario Galaxy, Smash Bros and the kinda cool looking Madworld.

    Also, superior lulz to LindBergh2007 for being very silly.

  • maxgil2

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 1:26 am PT

    hehehe..there are some games which look decent coming out for Wii- Castlevania Judgement, The Conduit, MadWorld, EA hinted Dead Space will be coming to Wii ... This is just one game - that is bad imo. Atm I just think there's better known titles coming out /up for other platforms hence it makes Wii looks bad .. Wii music = doesn't help..

    Some comments are true, alot of Nintendo fans from NES/SNES era - core gamers have moved to PS3/X360.

  • triclops41

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 1:04 am PT

    i don't like wii music and i would only try it if someone else bought it, but it will end up selling well. it may not be pleasant, but it will be an evergreen title. wont be as big as the other nintendo 1st party games this year, but it will outsell a good majority of this falls glut of great games.

  • XanderZane

    Posted Nov 18, 2008 12:01 am PT

    I'm not wasting my money on any Wii Music. I don't even care for Rock Band, so what would I bother. I play Guitar Hero 2 & 3 and will probably get the Aerosmith on and maybe World Tour next year.

  • snakes3425

    Posted Nov 17, 2008 11:30 pm PT

    Hmm, tough choice, do I get Guitar Hero or Rock Band which are both fantastic, or Wii Music and die of embarrasment

  • acsam12304

    Posted Nov 17, 2008 9:41 pm PT

    Wii way over hyped by the media. you just cant compare the Wii to the REAL next-gen systems ( the 360, and PS3.)

    The only system you can compare the Wii with is the PS2 and the PS2 is making a lot of sales because the games it is still bring out.

  • santiagochile

    Posted Nov 17, 2008 8:07 pm PT

    LindBergh2007, your post was even worse than Wii Music. Let's see.

    "the Wii won't stay around much longer". According to Ign.com:

    "Sales of Nintendo's little white console were off the charts in October, according to new data released by the NPD Group. Wii sold 803,000 units for the month, singlehandedly outselling Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PSP combined."

    Sorry, you lose! Wii Music is not very good, but your whole post was just a waste of space! Go away!

  • Mikethechimp

    Posted Nov 17, 2008 6:49 pm PT

    Play a casual game like "Wii Music" or "Wii fit". Then play a proven winning-formula Nintendo franchise like Zelda or Metroid.

    Compare the amount of fun.

  • xcollector

    Posted Nov 17, 2008 5:44 pm PT

    "Dunaway says game is 'evergreen.' " Sounds like denial.

  • FoxExecutive

    Posted Nov 17, 2008 5:19 pm PT

    I think the problem with Wii Music isn't that it is a gimmick but was cheaply done hoping to hit it big. In reflection, I think that Wii Music could have been so much more.

    Here is a thought. Make games like Wii Music, but instead of relying on gimmicks put the time into them so they draw critical acclaim from the media and the people you are selling them too. However, forgetting about their library of actual games would be stupid of Nintendo. So do both. Nintendo is a large developer who can do both aspects and in many ways they don't have to be mutually exclusive.

    As a person argued earlier, any business's model is to make the most money without the least amount of work. Of course all businesses should strive for this. However, in that argument there is a catch. The amount of work you put into something will almost certainly reflect the customer's appeal of the product and in turn the amount of money you will make. Nintendo has seen now that their lack of effort in making Wii Music has cost them because they have lost the customers, and I think many will say it most definitely started at the disastrous E3 showing. There is still promise with the Wii and it definitely isn't down for the count as LindBergh2007 has argued. It still has a great library from it's first two years and I am happy with my purchase. However, for it to shake this incident off and not repeat the same mistake it will need to strengthen its effort in future outings.

  • Ospov

    Posted Nov 17, 2008 5:07 pm PT

    knock knock

    who's there?

    Wii Music sucks

  • The_Owner

    Posted Nov 17, 2008 5:06 pm PT

    I just hope Nintendo takes this as a message to not forget about the hardcores. Judging by this news piece though they're just going to try to save face and leave it there.

  • LindBergh2007 posted Nov 17, 2008 4:48 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    LindBergh2007

    Posted Nov 17, 2008 4:48 pm PT (hide)

    Wow! I'm surprised at all the Nintendo fanboys and Wii owners now officially angry with them and finally sick of the Wii fad. I had no idea how many would turn against it in two years but It's amusing to see it happen. Everything that they are moaning about are the main reasons why I avoided the Wii: Because I saw right through it. I knew it was a pathetic novelty console, the idea of motion sesory sounded like a gimmick. In addition to the fact that nintendo didn't even bother to make thier console next gen. While thier method of cheaping things has proven successful, selling thier console for a cheap price to people that don't know jack about video games, churning out party games like "Wii sports" and "Wii fit" instead of the franchises that Ninendo always thrives on.

    It's hard to believe that this is a far cry of the Nintendo that everyone used to love and I remember as a kid. The company behind that family friendly for everybody console NES(that I still love to death) the hardcore SNES( a great console that I loved and played to death along with the Genesis in which I owned both) and the not-so-excellent but still decent Nintendo 64( which was able to hold itself together thanks to the fact that despite the expensive development of it's titles, it usaully churned out several B+ titles a year) has now become the Gamecube( "we make 3rd party publishers churn out mediocre DC ports and" we think online-gaming sucks ) to the Wii-gimmickly-novelty Gamecube 1.5 console for everyone except gamers.

    Now two years later, most of the Wii owners have already tired of the fad and are abandoning it for 360 because of the better library it has and because IT's now the cheaper console.(Which is why I believe it will still be around after the crash It won't be before long before the cries over Nintendo abandoning it's base for "people that don't really play games" and it's effects will be felt when demand for the Wii wanes down. With hardly any B+ titles this year and the economy continuing to drag down and the video game market now officially in a crash period, the Wii and PS3(with poor software support and dismal sales) will likely be abandoned and the Xbox 360 and PS2 will continue to survive with a handful of game releases a month and SEGA will be given an open spot to re-enter the console market.

    Wii-music is the sign that the bottom has fallen out on these gimmicks for Wii, if Nintendo needs to stop continues to ignoring both it's base and hardcore gamers and release some franchise titles they don't and continue releasing more of these novelty games instead of "Mario" "Zelda" or "Yoshi" and hardcore titles then the Wii won't stay around much longer.

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